College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

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I've only recently begun practising magick, after several years of Tarot & I-Ching readings and a lifetime of reading mythology, spirituality and psychological literature. I've spent a few weeks performing the LBRP as a morning / evening routine and have had some interesting results already. However, I see from reading both literature and forums that results usually take a while to come and I wanted to check that I'm not mistaken or getting ahead of myself.

I began performing the LBRP as taught by Israel Regardie, but have moved to adding the Thelemic names to both the LBRP and the QC. I've always had the knack of visualising, so the pentagrams aren't a problem and have become more apparent over time. The appearance of my Archangels has come on so quickly however, that thought it best to ask for opinions.
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93

Well the good thing is that you feel you are getting somewhere, and who knows, perhaps you are getting closer. But the natural question a person on this forum will quite rightly ask is, are you keeping a magickal diary?

The system developed by Crowley is one of scientific exploration. Not science handed-down-as-authority, but with yourself as the explorer (and keeping a daily record!) Many of the practices appear basic, but that is so as not to influence your results. Do them, they work.

The same cannot be said to any great extent for the practices handed down by Mr Regardie and his fans and followers (which probably include many on here).

Regardie was a prodigious purloiner of other people’s work. He pirated OTO material for his own financial ends, even while Mrs Germer was dying of starvation not that far from where he lived.

Mr Karl Johannes Germer, Crowley’s legitimate successor, wrote to a pupil about Regardie in the following words:
“He is a clever and intelligent Jew. Came to A.C.’s books in 1928. A.C. wrote to me in New York. I saw Regardie in Washington where his father lived. He was eager and hard-working. We agreed to hire him, sent him to Paris as secretary to A.C. He lived there for three years, and later in London. 666 put him through some severe tests, and he fell down. He separated from the Great Work, went back to California and lives there a shameful life. All that he knows was from Crowley. Yet the books he has written it is as if it was Regardie who was the big I Am! He speaks condescendingly of his Master, who initiated him only into lower things. So Regardie is spiritually dead, rotting on the spot where 666 permitted him to go. If you read Zanoni, he represents Glyndon, I think the name is. This and possibly further incarnations are doomed for him.”

Cicero's Essential Golden Dawn is a version even further watered down to make it more commercial to the present market. Apart from recycled stuff (Regardie’s viewpoint is essentially of the old age of Osiris), he adds material that is so generic that it can be found in a plethora of cults these days with slightly changed names.

A good book that might interest you is Cults in Our Midst by Margaret Singer (a psychologist, though one with a rather better moral compass than Mr Regardie). Helpful both for recognising occult manipulation but also gives examples of well-meaning psychology and psychotherapy –based groups/cults started by well-meaning, trained professionals who get carried away with some occult or mystical visions that are a bit ‘off centre.’

I’m saying this not to have a go at Israel Regardie – he’s dead, after all. But people can wallow in the sort of half-truths purported by his type for many years. They contain enough apparently useful material to be convincing but that ultimately leads astray. You can, of course, try to ‘introduce’ the current of the new aeon at the same time, but it is hard enough without clinging to stuff that is past its bury–by date.
The entities you encountered were probably not actual Angels. They may well have been messengers of some sort at best, or projections of your subconscious. They seem to have served their purpose. What you do next is not only up to you, it may be crucial to the rest of your magickal career – in this life and thereafter . . .

However, I do not wish to give you too much encouragement. That, after all was a mistake not only of Regardie but of people like Kenneth Grant, Helen Parsons Smith and many others. If you need to be ‘helped’ too much, then you are unfit and it is better not to get you in too deep. It is better that you make your decision to adopt the real methods of 666, to stand on your own feet, and preferably decide without dillydallying, within a few hours of reading this - or else forever go your own way. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

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C.

To the original poster:

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am writing this on the assumption that it is a serious question you pose. Generally people on forums post for chitchat or mind games but there might be an exception.
Suggestions that you should ‘take a break’ or worry about this and the other side-effect are merely evidence that the posters have not mastered asana I’m afraid. If you join a ‘yoga-group’ – or a so-called thelemic group that wants to swell its members, you will be told easy stuff rather than to actually do it. But if you don’t do it, you don’t get the results.
Firstly though, the will. If you take an Oath and decide to do a practice as part of your task, you should be so fired up that you will do anything just to ensure you complete that task. Sitting motionless for an hour without fail every day for a year is not exactly a marine training course. But you have to want to do it! And if you fail, you start again from the point where you failed and keep going till you succeed.
This is one of the advantages from taking your oath and task seriously. But if you have not been admitted under the guidance of a genuine teacher, then try to imagine that you have. There is little point in whining: the instructions are pretty clear (Liber E and Book 4 Part I). It doesn’t say use a book. It doesn’t say give up after twenty minutes. And chatting about it to anyone else is likely to just put you off.
But there is no need to make things harder for yourself than you need to. Start with an asana that is comfortable, perhaps one you have used in meditation. Can you sit still for an hour? If you experience sensations of numbness, treat it as you would in pratyahara. Simply observe it. If you notice tiredness or stiffness in a part of the body, simply keep the conscious mind on that part of the body and make a mental note, “tired” or “stiff” and then carry on with the pratyahara contemplation.
There are three stages in asana as with many practices. First, you feel quite nice and comfortable. Secondly you start to feel tired or fidgety or numbness or whatever. The third stage goes beyond these and levels out so you have little awareness of your body.
Some numbness is not harmful at all. If one sits in meditation for a few hours, one will probably find it quite often that it’s necessary to straighten the legs slowly till the circulation returns. Age, diet and general health will make a difference. If you are seriously worried about your health, attend to any underlying problems and then take a bit more exercise. Improving your circulation is fine, but a little numbness during asana is not to be used as an excuse to stop. As your mind becomes less distracted with bodily movement, it becomes more acute. You start noticing things and maybe have heightened sensation. You think your legs hurt but they don’t. The imaginary pain goes away when you carry on.
There are exceptions to choosing a ‘comfy’ posture to start. For instance, you may wish to assume a posture suited to a particular god-form. But attain some mastery of asana first. Start with a comfortable position to get used to the idea, then choose one from Liber E that you feel most inclined towards. Asana and the assumption of god-forms are separate, at least to start with. Asana is also a preliminary for dharana, since the bodily distractions are the first that have to be dealt with. Take one thing at a time and get it right. Then move on. Remember, an hour means an hour, and unless you do it by the book continuously for a year, it really doesn’t count. The reasons are not really worth worrying about until you have succeeded. When you have, you’ll know.
This is my experience. But it is all in the prescribed books. You don’t have to take my word for it. If someone tells you to do things that are counter to the official instructions, they’re simply wrong. At least as far as the thelemic system is concerned!
Love is the law, love under will.